Leena Yousefi Takes To Social Media To Call Out "Cruel Standards" Pregnant Women Face

A lawyer pregnant with twins took to social media and spoke about the “cruel standards” that pregnant women in the workplace have to face. The lawyer described her pregnancy as “the hardest physical challenge I have ever gone through in my life”.

The 39-year-old Leena Yousefi is a lawyer based in Vancouver, Washington. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the law firm YLaw. Yousefi took to LinkedIn to reveal the issues she faced as a pregnant working woman.

Yousefi revealed in the post that she had been “in a constant state of chronic depression, nausea, aversions to everything, disabling migraines, a numbness to the world, and lack of happening” for the past two months. She said that women are expected to work during the first trimester with no breaks and did not receive any leave or paid time off. Yousefi added, “Then we wonder why the rate of miscarriage is astronomical and why it is often related to stress”.

Leena Yousefi Calls Out Treatment Of Pregnant Women

Yousefi said that pregnant women having to take time off work was often treated as a vacation or unpaid time off. She said that pregnant women were threatened with their security when they were in their “most fragile state”. Yousefi added that “Either we sacrifice ourselves or risk our financial security.”

The founder and CEO of YLaw said she was lucky to take time off as she knew that she did not have to answer to anyone and acknowledged that not every woman had the same choice. Keeping that in mind, Yousefi revealed that her experience motivated her to introduce a new policy for her law firm YLaw.

Yousefi ended her statement by saying, “Let’s reexamine the cruel standards we have subjected women to and create a world where our children do not have to choose between work and being human.”

People showed their support for Yousefi in the comment section of her post. One user wrote, “I appreciate very much that you shared your story and that you are willing to be vulnerable in a world where the hard work of creating human life is incredibly undervalued.” Another user said that people need “flexible hours and part-time work to have a decent quality of life”.

Suggested Reading: Should Pregnant Women Ask For Privileges Like Seats On Public Transport?